Modern Slavery: Halt Human Trafficking

Tuesday

Feb 18, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Although slavery has been banned across the world, there are more slaves today than at any other time in history. The advocacy group Free the Slaves estimates there are more than 21 million people in slavery today.

Although slavery has been banned across the world, there are more slaves today than at any other time in history.The advocacy group Free the Slaves estimates there are more than 21 million people in slavery today. The number includes people forced into prostitution and other victims of human trafficking.In the United States, the problem has been long hidden in the shadows but is now getting deserved attention. Given that Florida ranked third in 2011 for the number of calls received by a national sex- and labor-trafficking hotline, it's good to see Florida officials taking the problem seriously.Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has made the issue a priority. U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Gainesville, plans to create a human trafficking task force.The University of Florida held a human-trafficking symposium this month. Local groups in the Gainesville university area are connecting trafficking victims with help and possibly setting up a local shelter."I've heard the analogy that human sex trafficking is at the stage that domestic abuse was back in the '60s and '70s. People knew it was happening, but nobody really wanted to call it what it really was," Richard Tovar told The Gainesville Sun. Tover is a founder of one of the groups.

FLORIDA AND INTERNATIONAL PROBLEMPerceptions about the source of the problem also need to be changed. While Florida has seen immigrants from China and Haiti brought here illegally for forced labor, there is also a home-grown problem such as teenage girls being forced into prostitution.Too often, people in the sex trade are treated like offenders rather than possible victims of trafficking or other abuse. A Sarasota Herald-Tribune series last year, "The Stolen Ones," showed that children forced into prostitution are often first victims of sexual abuse.Florida is among the states that have passed safe-harbor laws that allow children rescued from prostitution to get help from child-welfare professionals instead of being placed in juvenile delinquency. The federal government's Blue Campaign aims to prosecute offenders as well identify victims and get them help.Whether it's called slavery or human trafficking, the problem is happening right in our backyard. Establishing shelters and aiding victims, while aggressively prosecuting ringleaders, can help relegate slavery to largely being a problem of the past.

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